Charging Accessorys |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Topic: Charging Accessorys Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 7:47pm |
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!2v Sockets |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 8:59pm | |
Thanks. I have ordered one dual and a three-way with the Voltmeter. I want to keep track of my battery usage and just having the LED lights does not tell me much. The digital readout should be more useful.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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CharlieM
Senior Member Joined: 23 Nov 2012 Location: N. Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 1797 |
Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 10:04pm | |
Good plan. Voltmeter=Good; LEDs=Worthless. To maximize the VM accuracy it should be wired directly to the battery. HOWEVER, second best and still quite acceptable is to wire it to an unused slot on the power converter. Easily done and described by several on this forum. Connecting to an existing circuit can produce readings erroneously low. Maybe only a few tenths of a volt, but in this application each tenth of a volt can mean 10% error in battery SOC. |
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Charlie
Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 10:31pm | |
That's a good plan. I built my own voltmeter very early on, so didn't order the three port one (I think all the monitor panel readouts are hokum) Think about putting at least that bay of the three on a separate switch, for both the glow at night, and the small parasitic draw.. ;) |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 10:32pm | |
Thank you. I had not thought of the voltage drop. I'll see if I can do a direct connect for the Voltmeter.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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johnmaci
Senior Member Joined: 17 Jun 2014 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 202 |
Posted: 18 Jan 2016 at 9:32am | |
Furpod, Could you please explain the connections here? What did you splice together? If you double up on connections and you draw from both does that still leave enough room so that the wires do not overheat? Case in point, I plan on connecting my CB radio to one outlet, and a small 12v (19") TV to the other..... |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 18 Jan 2016 at 10:46am | |
Those are 10g wires. Good to 30A. The fuse is going to blow LONG before those wires get hot.
Those outlets set only have 1 cigarette lighter type socket, the other is a USB charging port (dual). There is a negative and positive connection on the back of each outlet. I just brought one wire to each side and then on to the next. This is the same way your house etc is wired, the outlets on a circuit are wired in series. When any electrical circuit is laid out, it is the fuse or breaker's job to protect the wires, not any stuff plugged into the circuit. The circuits these are wired to have 10A and 15A fuses. NOW.. one thing that's "different" from what you might do, I already had 12v outlets in the two places I mounted these. Those were already wired with female ends, so I just added male ends for the hookups, because I had them on hand, and for one of the outlet sets, there is zero spare working room behind the outlets, so this made it a little easier to plug into MY installation. Back when I played with CB radios, the circuits I ran for them were protected by 10A fuses. Never blew a fuse. All you have to do is look at the CB and the TV and see how many amps, or watts, they pull. But I am sure they will be less than 10A combined, to tell you the truth. Monday morning boredom results in: Looking at the manual for the most expensive Cobra model I could find, the 29LXBT, (my assumption being this model will have the most features and the highest power requirements) it says 1.5A max draw. The 19" Jensen 12v TV I looked up real quick appears to have a 3.3A draw. The 2 USB charging ports max at 2.1A and 1A. So even if you used a spliter for the 12v outlet, and had USB stuff charging at max, at the same time you were watching TV and talking to your good buddies, you still wouldn't blow a 10A fuse. |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 18 Jan 2016 at 10:54am | |
One thing about the mentioned voltage drop.. Playing with my multimeter, I find my monitor shows .01-.02 less voltage then the multimeter shows at the batteries. I don't see this as problem in any way. If the meter shows a bit "pessimistic" and is showing me I am down to 12.21v, when I am REALLY at 12.22-3V, I see that as a good thing. The battery is not as LOW as shown on my panel, but I am going to use my panel output as "true", meaning, when I choose to recharge, or cut the power to protect the batteries, they are "safer" then shown. I was worried about how exact the output from the gauge would be, and wired temporary at first, in case I wanted to do it direct, rather then put it where it's convenient.. but even from one end of the trailer to the other, it's all short runs, and the voltage drops are pretty minimal, as long as the gauge of the wire is correct. |
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jato
Senior Member Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Location: Kewadin, MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 3252 |
Posted: 18 Jan 2016 at 11:10am | |
Wow, that is a lot of information to process. For the most part we boondock, hence our 2 marine batteries come into play a lot. I have been told, and maybe you already know the answer, that the deep cycle battery should only be drawn down to 1/3 of its full charge before recharging. This is what we have done since we purchased ours in 2011. In the winter months I take them out and give them each a trickle charge for a day and put them in our basement until the following spring. Any advice? Last I checked they still are holding a great charge after nearly 5 years.
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God's pod
'11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 18 Jan 2016 at 11:38am | |
We left ours in all winter, with the pod plugged in. By "marine batteries" do you mean 12v rv/marine? if so, then you should never let them get below 50% SOC. If you have a setup like our old, 2 12v Group 24 RV/Marine batteries. Our 12v batteries tested 100% life when we turned them in as cores for our Trojan T-105s. 5 years old. Those dual 12v are good for about 55-65aH of useable storage. We switched to dual 6v GC-2 sized batteries, fit in the same space, gives us about 110aH of useable storage if we pull to 50% SOC.. almost double, without taking into account that we do now have true deep cycle batteries and can pull them as deep as we need, though I hope we never really have to take them below 50%, but know it won't be "as hard" on them if we do. |
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